SED302 : CAE Bridge Design Optimisation - Engineering Assignment

Internal Code : MAS511

Engineering Assignment

Design Optimization : Assignment has three components (refer to due dates above): 1. An oral presentation of your initial designs and analysis prior to prototyping. There will be both an individual and team component to this assessment. 2. The practical class where you will test the loading capabilities of your prototype bridge. 3. A comprehensive, yet concise CAE technical report detailing your engineering design and analysis, prototype build and comparison to your experimental test. There will be both an individual and team component to this assessment. Geelong’s famous one-way bridge that spans the Barwon River at Queens Park  has been selected for upgrading and the Geelong City Council is seeking your help as Computer Aided Design Engineers. The Geelong City Council is interested in a low-cost, lightweight and subsequently, a structurally efficient design capable of supporting light vehicle traffic. Your design team is required to design, analyse and build a small prototype of your new Queens Park bridge and present it through an oral presentation and an accommodating CAE report to the Geelong City Council (in this case it is your lecturing staff and your fellow peers). Balsa wood will be the material used to construct your prototype. The scaled prototype must span a width of 300 mm and have a total length of 360 mm. The width and height must not exceed the dimensions as shown in Figure 2. The bridge must have a smooth surfaced roadbed to allow vehicles to drive over it. A rectangular of 125(L) x 60(W) x 60(H) must be able to pass through your bridge (simulating a vehicle passing through it). Additionally, you cannot design structure below the roadbed as canoes and rowing boats often pass beneath it, similar to the picture show in Figure 1. Your prototype bridge must be able to support a minimum load of 12 kg. Your objective is to design the most structurally efficient bridge based on a strength-to-weight ratio. Therefore, as light as possible, but be able to support the greatest load. And thus, you must demonstrate optimisation of your design. This will be primarily based on the four-point-bend load case described below, that will be experimentally performed in the practical class of week 10/11. The four-point-bend load case simulates a truck driving over the bridge.